My school is notorious for making students unhappy, but right now I'm feeling especially strained about this Thanksgiving break. Thanksgiving was on Thursday, for those of you who don't know, and most people had most (if not all) of last week off from school to go home and spend time with families and stuff. Not me! I got Thursday and Friday off. In order to get home before the actual holiday, I had to leave Atlanta after all my classes had ended and drive four hours through traffic and into the night. And since it's basically the end of everyone else's break, I haven't really been able to visit any of my old friends.

On top of that...my dog is really old. And apparently it's been showing for a few months, but I had no idea until I got back. She can barely stay standing, less likely walk, and we basically have to carry her around to let her pee and poop, and feed her from our hands. Besides being traumatic and just really sad for me and my family, it's also very time consuming. Between caring for her and helping my mom cook, I didn't do ANYTHING on Thursday. Yesterday I managed to get out and meet some disciples from the sister church near Charlotte (more in a sec). But today, most people are on their way back to school. I watched a movie with my mom, and now I've got a ton of work to catch up on before I go back to school tomorrow. It's stupid. All they've managed to do is distract me from Hell Week coming up.

As for making new friends, that was totally a blast. I've really wanted to get to know the campus ministries near my hometown for a while, now, but I never got around to it until recently. We watched a movie and ate at Cookout and just enjoyed the company. Good times! Good to meet more of the Body.

I read Green, finally. It was pretty neat. Sort of disappointed with the ending...It may because I read it without refreshing the other three books first. DekKer's writing style can be sort of forced sometimes, especially if you're not used to it. Still love it. The man GETS it. Speaking of green, I'm thinking of making a new layout. You can see I switched to my old starry one. I'm collecting them. :)

The girls in my ministry are studying the Bible with a girl in a sorority on campus. I've taken special care to be...careful with her, and I've asked the guys with me hold to that. Of course, this prompted a volley of jokes about marriage and sweeping the whole greek community. It's like middle school again. Ha!

This morning, I was talking to Girl1. She asked me about and invited me to a concert with some band I've never heard of. I made the mistake of mentioning this to my roommate.

"Wow, Steve, you've caught the sisters' attention!"

"What are you talking about?"

"First Girl2 asked you on a date...and then..."

Girl2 took me on a date about a month ago. It was...quite a blast. So he's got me there.

"That's it! Only Girl2! I haven't been asked on any other dates."

"Well Girl1 is asking you now."

"No! She hasn't said anything about a date. Shut up. Last time, you made fun of me about Girl3, and now she doesn't talk to me."

-Que text message from Girl3, who was indeed not talking to me until just then.-

"Steve, admit it, the ladies have noticed you."

"I will make no admissions. These are freak occurrences. This does not mean anything."

I've always sort of wanted to be a twin. I have a brother, and right now our ages are close enough that we could ignore the age difference in most regards. Gotta love the little bro.

I was baptized on the same day as another girl in my church. We (the church) like to put lots of emphasis on the day we're baptized, treating it more or less exactly like a second birthday. And that makes us twins! And while it's mostly a joke, it IS sort of neat to share something random like a spirthday (haha it's a mongrel word!) with someone.

We didn't really know each other before we became Christians. For a while after, we only saw each other in passing. But lately we've been interacting more. Tonight she asked me what I was like before I got saved.

(After I bleat at her) "Was your personality before you got baptized similar to what it is now?"

"Yeah...mostly."

"What changed? Were you religious?"

I won't tell you what the answer was. Clearly I was religious. But can you guess what's changed? I don't think anyone here is going to be able to accurately pin me down like that...most of you only see me in what I write here. A grotesque caricature, as it were. Any changes you see are way out of context.